Introduction
In 1997, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain's Pharmacy Practice Research and Development Task Force proposed that all pharmacists should be "research users", and that 10% of pharmacists should be "research doers", actively involved in research. However, there has been little published evidence regarding community pharmacists' attitudes towards, or their willingness to participate in, such research.

Aim
To investigate community pharmacists' perception of pharmacy practice research and to identify the barriers perceived by such pharmacists as preventing research activity.

Method
A self-completed postal questionnaire, including 29 attitudinal statements, was sent to pharmacists working in all 651 community pharmacies in East London and Essex. The attitudinal statements were derived from preliminary interviews with community pharmacists and key players in pharmacy practice research and were analysed by factor analysis.

Results and discussion
The response rate was 60.2%. Factor analysis revealed five factors comprising correlated statements. The majority of respondents perceived community based practice research to be important and relevant to them and to the future development of pharmacy. Fifty four percent agreed that they would like to undertake practice research, although 66% felt their daily activities precluded this. Payment for research was a major factor determining pharmacists' likely participation, with a majority agreeing that they would only participate if paid to do so. Pharmacists' employment status, i.e. employee or proprietor, also impacted on the opportunities for research and willingness to participate in research, probably reflecting their relative levels of professional autonomy, and business constraints. Agreeing that an activity was worthwhile did not however, necessarily correlate with carrying out such an activity. For instance, 65% of the pharmacists had not completed an audit in the past year, although 71 % agreed that such audit was a worthwhile activity.